Instead of a Love Letter
by MitsukiJunko
Summary: Ryoma had mistaken her poem of love as a love letter to him. Panic, confrontation, more teases and revelation… a single letter did it all.


**Hi there! MitsukiJunko is here again, celebrating my one year being a member in the world of fanfiction. Yey, it's been already a year since I started writing fics. Well, this is my gift for everyone who appreciate my stories. I hope you like this one. Domo Arigatou Gozaimasu. (Hah, I corrected it, just for once. It's my day okay.) ;P**

**DISCLAIMER: Everything that used here is created originally by only one author... All rights reserved to Konomi Takeshi-sensei.**

* * *

**Instead of a Love Letter**

**Summary: Ryoma had mistaken her poem of love as a love letter to him. Panic, confrontation, more teases and revelation… a single letter did it all.**

* * *

'_When I saw you, I was afraid to meet you, _

_When I met you, I was afraid to kiss you,_

_When I kissed you, I was afraid to love you,_

_Now that I love you, I am afraid to lose you.'_

"Done!" She sighed as she put her pen down on her desk and leaned back on her chair. Holding the poem in her hands, a smile formed on her lips as she re-read what she had wrote on that tiny piece of paper. She was done with her assignment for tomorrow. Her teacher asked the class to write about a poem about love. Knowing that she wouldn't be able to do that at home, she decided to do her poem at school, in her room while waiting for her grandmother to finish her training session with the tennis club that day. Satisfied, she folded the paper and slid it in a white envelope. Their teacher wanted them to make it artistic so she ended up with a plain envelop and a sticker heart to close it properly. At the back of the letter she put her full name on it. She looked at her poem and chuckled a little. The poem looked like a letter.

Looked like a love letter to be precised.

_Love letter, huh? _she thought as she placed the envelop on top of her desk and walked to the window. She opened it and looked below. Amazingly, she could see the court below and watched the regulars play and practice their skills. Her eyes locked at a particular figure below. The figure was not clear from her vision but she could recognize it, judging from the white hat.

…A fila hat that a certain tennis prodigy would wear.

…A certain Echizen Ryoma who was playing down there.

A blush suddenly registered to her face when she realized that she was staring at him for long. Good thing that she was a bit far from the court of else, he would catch her staring at him. She quickly looked away and looked somewhere else. As doing that, she remembered her poem. She looked at it once again as she thought of something.

_I managed to write that poem because of him, because I am inspired by him. I thought of him when I was writing those words. It wasn't a confession or anything, right? _She thought to herself, still blushing in the process. Shaking her head, she slapped her cheek slightly to gain composure. _Snap out of it, Sakuno. He was a great help that's why you created that poem. It was for tomorrow. My assignment for tomorrow. Right._

"Sakuno! What are you still doing here? You are missing all the fun!" Tomoka suddenly appeared from the door making her flinch a little.

"T-tomo-chan," She faced her and continued, "gomen, I was just-"

"Well, you've been here for ages," Tomoka cut her as she walked to her and grabbed her hand in the process, "And I've been waiting for you for ages too, now come on and let's cheer for Ryoma-sama, okay."

"E-eh?! M-matte-" she was being dragged by her best friend. Tomoka grabbed her bag at the corner of her desk, bending a bit in the process. Sakuno was too occupied with her sudden appearance and the immediate dragging thing, not aware of what was missing.

The room was now empty but the window was still open and the wind was freely entering the room.

A letter that was left behind on top of the desk was warning to move of its own. And just like the wind had its own hands and did some abracadabra, hokus focus or on ororikiya sowaka magic whatsoever, the letter flew and transferred at the other desk. The magic didn't stop there because the letter landed inside the hidden space where books and notebooks were located. Thus, the letter rested there, magically.

* * *

**Meanwhile, after practice;**

"Good work everyone," Sumire said as she called everyone's attention, "that's it for now. Be sure to rest well tonight and be ready for target practice and practice matches tomorrow."

"Hai!" the regulars said in unison.

Sakuno timidly approached the boy, "R-ryoma-kun, nice game today."

Ryoma who was drinking his ponta looked at her. He took a final sip first before replying to her, "sankyuu."

She smiled when she received a reply from him. Normally, the boy would give her grunts or nod but today, he actually replied with a word—no made that two today.

"Sakuno, come here for a minute." Sumire called her.

"Hai," she replied, "Ano, Obaa-chan is calling me. So I see you tomorrow then."

"Un."

She sighed with his lack of words but smiled afterwards. He was just him after all but she was satisfied for that day.

**xxx**

"Echizen!"

He was walking on his way to the gate when someone called him. He stopped from his tracks and looked behind him. He waited for Momo and Eiji to catch up to him.

"Ne, want to go eat burgers with us."

"Yeah, Ochibi. The more the merrier."

"But senpai, you are only two." Ryoma replied.

Momo answered him, "not anymore, if you join us. Now come on."

Ryoma stared at him first before nodding, "okay."

Momo and Eiji both rejoiced, "Alright!"

"Senpai's treat anyway." He smirked as he started to walk ahead of them.

"I didn't say that!" Both of them said at the same time.

"Ochibi, share you blessings, will you?"

"Heh," He smirked as he suddenly remembered something. He quickly dug into his bag and searched for something. Momo noticed him and asked;

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"Nai…"

"…nai?" both of them mimicked the younger.

"My science and math textbooks are not here. I need to have those for tomorrow's assignment."

"What? Didn't you check it before our training started today?" he retorted still looking at him who was searching his bag.

Ryoma looked back at him and said, "You know how I occupy myself when it comes to tennis," with that he returned back to his tracks and returned to the gate, "I go get it, you two go ahead. I'll try to catch up."

The both of them looked at his retreating back and sighed.

"Since when did he get this forgetful, huh?" Momo asked his senpai.

Eiji shrugged, "maybe he needs lots of iron in his head."

* * *

**Back at the club:**

Tomoka was long gone now as Sumire asked her to stay with her for a while. Her grandmother was doing some final touch for the upcoming tournament that they were going to participate months from now. She was seated at the corner of her desk when she suddenly remembered something.

"Oh no!" she stood up, making Sumire jerk up from writing.

"Why are you panicking there?" she looked at her fishing something from her bag.

She paused as she realized it and looked at her grandmother, "I-I forgot my assignment in our room, Obaa-chan. I'll go get it." With that, she quickly bolted out of her room leaving a stunned old coach there.

Sumire just shook her head and commented to herself, "Why do kids these days are getting forgetful now, geez." With that she resumed at writing.

**xxx**

_You're so stupid. All of things, why would you forget the poem? It was hard to make that, mou. _She thought as she ran her way to their room. It was hard for her because it was written in English. She was a bit embarrassed on what she had written in that paper. _W-what if somebody read it? No way. It was sealed so no one would dare to look at it. _With that resolved; she quickened her pace and hurriedly ran to their room.

Only to see Ryoma exiting the room… wearing a faint tint of flush on his face. His eyes looked straight at her when he saw her there.

"R-ryoma-kun!" she called, her eyes were a bit widened, "W-what are you—still doing here? I-I thought that you went home already?"

As fast as he saw her there, he quickly recovered. Pinning his hat down, he replied, "I forgot my textbooks."

"Oh… I see." She commented. Silence erupted between them but broke when Ryoma started walking towards her.

"I'll go on ahead." He said walking casually as he passed her.

Sakuno watched him leave. As soon as he turned in the corner, she immediately remembered what she was doing there. She continued walking to the room and looked for the envelope.

…Only to be dismayed.

The envelope was not on top of her desk where she left it before. She tried looking elsewhere, below her table and chair, at the hidden box and the chair next to her. But there was still no sign of the envelope. She bit her lower lip as she couldn't find it.

"What if… what someone has it?" she thought worriedly. It was really embarrassing if someone read it, much to her terrifying thought. Her full name was embedded on it. Now she regretted writing her name on it. And it was clumsy of her to leave her poem like that. Suddenly her eyes, slowly widened as she remembered the last person she saw before entering the room.

It was the prince of tennis.

And she could remember his expression the moment he saw her there. Her face became beet red. Within seconds, she exited the room and looked outside the hallway trying to locate him below.

"I-I hope he is still in the school grounds." She uttered to herself as she panicky ran to the hallway.

* * *

**Meanwhile:**

He decided to stay for a while, at the rooftop, lying on the cold tiles of the floor there. While staring at the crepuscular rays in the sky to his side where he could see a clear view from there, he gripped the letter that he was holding in his left hand. Being quick at comprehension, he had read the letter twice already.

It was a love letter.

…From the person that he saw when he exited the room a while ago.

Naturally, he didn't pay attention to any love letter that was being inserted to his locker, inside his bag, or even at his desk. When he saw the white letter inside the hidden space of his desk, he was planning to ignore the letter at first but when he flipped the other side of the letter, his eyes widened.

Ryuzaki Sakuno.

That was the name written on the letter.

Upon reading the name, he felt a little blush on his face. Why? The shy, clumsy, directionally-challenged and stuttering girl wrote a letter to him.

…A love letter.

That made of poem.

That one letter out of the others, that letter was the only one which he would not-so-admit to accept, because it was from a certain pigtailed girl that he only knew.

As the wind blew, a smile was being created as he lifted the letter and covered his vision of the sky and began reading the letter once again;

"_If I write it on paper, I wonder if you will understand,_

_If I put it into words, I wonder if you will be able to see it,_

_I finally noticed the insufficient words,_

_Even though they are now surrounded everything."_

**xxx**

Sakuno tried to look outside while she ran to the hallway hoping that she would see the boy walked to the gate but there was no sign of him. Deciding to approach the downstairs, she quickly made her way to the lower floor.

"_No matter how many times I call your name, It'll never reach you…"_

…Only to be stopped when she heard something reciting. The school was already abandoned by students already so; she could hear someone's voice very faintly from the rooftop. The rooftop was only a floor away from where she was standing so it was not that hard to listen to whatever the voice was saying.

"_But now, I recall that your smiling face, looking back at me was dazzling, so I had to lower my eyes…"_

Her eyes widened as she slowly recognized the words despite how faint those were to her ears. It was definitely her poem and someone was reading it. The person who was reading it was a total shock for her, "N-no… I can not be…"

She made a u-turn and walked upward and went to the rooftop. Her face was blushing really hard as she could hear _him_ reading her love poem.

"_I entrusted a letter with the words that I softly embraced in my heart…"_

She reached for the doorknob and quickly opened the door of the rooftop. And then she saw him there, lying on the ground, her poem in his hand as he continued reading her poem.

"_A single word is fine; I want it to reach you…"_

Breathing deeply, she closed her eyes as she was trying to catch his attention, "Y-yamenasai, Ryoma-kun!"

Luckily, Ryoma looked at her and was a bit shocked of seeing her there but he quickly recovered as fast as that, "Ryuzaki."

Sakuno was in a panicked mode as she alternatively looked at him and the poem that he was holding. She saw him slowly dropping down the letter as he started to sit up. Her heart was beating fast. What if the boy misunderstood her poem? It was really embarrassing. It was true that she had a huge crush on him perhaps she liked him already, but that didn't mean that she would confess her feelings through a love letter. Not that she had the guts to do that, let alone to confess to him personally. She slowly walked closer to him who was intensely staring at her, breathing another set of air as she spoke;

"A-anou… I-I think you misunderstood," she started but not looking at him directly to his eyes, "i-it was not a… a love letter." She thought of the possible solution. She knew that the tennis prodigy would think that it was indeed a love letter. Who wouldn't when someone saw an envelope with a sticker heart on it plus your name was written as well. Taking enough courage, she looked at him.

Ryoma was wearing his usual reaction but she was a bit shocked when he suddenly spoke;

"How can you tell that it's not when you see it in someone's desk and was in a letter form?"

She knew it. Ryoma would think that it was a love letter to him from her. It was really embarrassing. Still blushing, she tried to explain herself, "T-that's for our assignment tomorrow, y-you know the love poem? S-sensei said that we should be artistic so… so I decided to make it like a love letter," she fidgeted with the hem of the skirt as she stopped just a few meters away from him. Ryoma was still sitting while Sakuno was looking down at him—particularly on the ground and not to him, "I—I didn't know how it landed on your desk. I sort of forgot it until now."

"Hmmm."

She heard him muttered. Could it be that he believed her? That would be good if he did. But she still couldn't look at him at that moment.

"You are getting good at this, you know that."

She flinched when he said that. He was praising her work… her work in English, which she was really bad at. Somehow, she felt enlightened when the boy said that to him but still she couldn't face him, afraid of what his reaction would be.

'_When I saw you, I was afraid to meet you, _

_When I met you, I was afraid to kiss you…'_

She jerked her head up as she heard him continue reading. Her reflexes moved quickly as she reached for him, "R-ryoma-kun… s-stop reading it, please!"

But Ryoma ignored her. Before she could reach him, he quickly stood up and walked backwards her poem was on his right hand now lifting it up keeping it from her reach. He seemed to be enjoying the moment as he noticed how she tried to get her poem from him. He also saw her blush, as he continued reading;

'_When I kissed you, I was afraid to love you,_

_Now that I love you, I am afraid to lose you.'_

She tried getting the poem from him as she saw him watching her in the process. It seemed that the boy had already memorized her poem. She was getting really embarrassed now. Just how many times did he read her poem that he was able to remember what she had written there. Ryoma was leaning backward, still holding her poem to his right hand as she was tiptoeing to get it while her other hand was on his shoulder, still oblivious how closed they were at that very moment. The boy was smirking, really unknown to her knowledge, especially his next moves.

To her surprise, Ryoma's left hand went to her waist drawing their bodies together. Instantly, she looked at his eyes without warning forgetting the letter temporarily.

"Ne," he said not looking away from her eyes, "the letter, why don't we make it real?"

"E-eh?!" Her eyes widened as blush crept to her face. For goodness sake, their bodies were still pretty closed and she couldn't think straight at their closeness. She gripped his shoulder sleeves as she looked away from him, "R-ryoma-kun… w-what are you-"

She was stiffened when the boy leaned closer to her to give her a chaste kiss on the cheek. She was really blushing as her heart was beating really fast, betting that the boy could hear it judging from his actions.

"Instead of a love letter," he whispered to her ear that brought shivers down to her spine. Ryoma was beiing a teaser for the very first time in her life, "why don't you just say it personally to me?"

Her eyes widened as she stared behind him, the sun was already set that time but the view was still beautiful. Her blush never decreased a tone as she leaned on his shoulder a little, "baka… I-I n-never intended to confess in the first place."

"Che," he grunted but he completely hugged the girl making her gasp in the process, "the poem was a blessing in disguise after all." The wind was welcoming the ease feeling around them.

"R-ryoma-kun…" she said nothing than that. She imagined that her clumsiness would be helpful at a time like this. It was not like she would not confess to him. It just that she never had the guts to tell him, although the hints were already in the poem that he read. He already knew that it was him all along… well at least when he read the letter accidentally. She was thankful that it was Ryoma who had her poem after all. If someone had it other than him, it would be chaos for sure.

She would never want to step a single foot in Seigaku ever.

After seconds of hugging and caressing, he slowly released her. Still blushing, she looked at him with courage. Ryoma was giving her a genuine smile as he held her left hand with his right.

The poem was enough for them, no words needed anymore. It was all thanks to Sakuno's poem.

.

.

.

.

.

"R-ryoma-kun, where's my poem?" She suddenly remembered. Her poem was previously in his right hand but was now holding her left hand. Ryoma looked at her blankly before saying his words;

"I sort of… dropped it when I hugged you."

"E-eh?"

"It was flown away by the wind."

"…"

"…"

"Y-you lost it?"

"Seems like it."

"…"

"…"

There were no sound could be heard between them. They were just staring at each other as no one could say a word.

"Ryoma-kun! T-that is my assignment for tomorrow!" she began panicking as she started roaming around the rooftop searching for the paper.

Ryoma looked at her walking around there as he sweat dropped. He smirked as he watched her panicky reaction. He wanted to tell her that he could help her with her poem as he could remember what she wrote there. But for now, he secretly and silently watched her panic while looking at her love poem.

**~Owari~**

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**Done! How was this one-shot? Did you like it? I want to know… This plot was within me approximately four months ago but didn't have the time to write it. And then, my first anniversary being a member here in fanfiction caught my memory, so I took a break from my ongoing fics and started making this one. I hope you like this… Domo.**

**The poem was inspired from a song called Love Letter no Kawari ni Kono Uta wo by Seira. The poem was actually the English translation of the song and the song was from the opening of the second season of the anime called 'Letter Bee'. I do not own the song or the anime either. Just love sharing it.**

**The part of the poem which Sakuno written last at the beginning and the last part Ryoma read was inspired by a student of mine. It was not included from the song. I love that quote so I was very thankful of that student of mine. Domo… ^_^**

**oh and one more thing, I don't know if you are satisfied how Ryoma knew that he was the person she was talking about on her poem. with all due respect, I hope to leave it like that... sankyuu... ^_^**

**vocab: **

**nai - something like no or no way.**

**yamenasai - please stop it.**

**I love you all… remember that. No matter how I am in the future… I will never abandon you or the fanfiction itself. Yakusoku da yo… **

**~MitsukiJunko~ **


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